Published by Rondsale Press, Marshall’s book is a carefully researched narrative of the 1858 Fraser River Valley gold rush that enriches our understanding of that pivotal period in British Columbia and the geopolitical forces at play.

“As I prospected my way down the Pacific Slope through American archival collections, following the trail of the ’58ers back to California, a significant piece of the gold rush puzzle began to emerge that was largely lost to time—an epic telling of violence, native-newcomer conflict, and war with Indigenous peoples on either side of the 49th parallel,” says Dr. Marshall. “The very roots of Indigenous rights and unrest current in the province today can be traced to the 1858 gold rush and the making of a new El Dorado.”

“Dr. Marshall’s book provides a new, richly informative look at a chaotic period in British Columbia’s history,” says Susan E. Parker, UBC’s University Librarian. “We are thrilled to be able to highlight, once again, the work of an author and academic from British Columbia.”

Dr. Daniel Marshall is an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Victoria. He is also the author of Those Who Fell from the Sky: A History of the Cowichan Peoples, which received a BC2000 Millennium Award. Dr. Marshall serves as a Special Advisor on gold rushes to the Royal BC Museum.

The Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Book on British Columbia, sponsored by UBC Library and the Pacific BookWorld News Society, recognizes the best scholarly book published by a Canadian author on a B.C. subject. The book prize was established in memory of Basil Stuart-Stubbs, a bibliophile, scholar and librarian who passed away in 2012. Stuart-Stubbs’s many accomplishments included serving as the University Librarian at UBC Library and as the Director of UBC’s School of Library, Archival and Information Studies. Stuart-Stubbs had a leadership role in many national and regional library and publishing activities. During his exceptional career, he took particular interest in the production and distribution of Canadian books and was associated with several initiatives beneficial to authors and their readers, and to Canadian publishing.

March 6th, 2018 by michelle blackwell | Comments Off on Marianne Ignace and Ronald E. Ignace win the 2018 Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for their exploration of Secwépemc history told through Indigenous knowledge and oral traditions.

March 8th, 2017 by michelle blackwell | Comments Off on Arthur J. Ray wins the 2017 Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for his examination of Aboriginal land claims litigation

Arthur J. Ray has won the Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia for his book Aboriginal Rights Claims and the Making and Remaking of History. The $1,000 prize, given by UBC Library and the Pacific BookWorld News Society, will be awarded at UBC’s Irving K. Barber Learning Centre in June.

Published by McGill-Queen’s University Press, Ray’s book is a masterfully-written examination of land claims litigation between indigenous peoples and the settler societies of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa that powerfully demonstrates the important role proceedings in British Columbia played in events of global significance.

“This book is the outgrowth of my involvement in aboriginal claims in Canada as an expert on the historical geography of the economies of First Nations and Metis communities,” says Dr. Ray, “Beginning with my participation in Delgamuukw v. The Attorney General of British Columbia (1997), l became interested in the ways extant case law and scholarship influenced claims research and, in turn, how the latter research advanced aboriginal rights law and scholarship about aboriginal people.”

“We are thrilled that this year’s Basil Stuart-Stubbs prize has been awarded to a book written by a UBC faculty member,” says Melody Burton, UBC’s Interim University Librarian.

Arthur J. Ray is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of British Columbia and has served as the co-editor of the Canadian Historical Review from 2003 to 2006. He is the author of several other books including Telling it to the Judge, An Illustrated History of Canada’s Native People and Bounty and Benevolence.

The Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Book on British Columbia, sponsored by UBC Library and the Pacific BookWorld News Society, recognizes the best scholarly book published by a Canadian author on a B.C. subject. The award was established in memory of Basil Stuart-Stubbs, a bibliophile, scholar and librarian who passed away in 2012.Stuart-Stubbs’s many accomplishments included serving as the University Librarian at UBC Library and as the Director of UBC’s School of Library, Archival and Information Studies. Stuart-Stubbs had a leadership role in many national and regional library and publishing activities. During his exceptional career, he took particular interest in the production and distribution of Canadian books, and was associated with several initiatives beneficial to authors and their readers, and to Canadian publishing.

June 2nd, 2016 by Clare Yow | Comments Off on John Thistle wins 2016 Basil Stuart-Stubbs Book Prize

John Thistle’s book on the history of the grasslands of British Columbia’s interior is the winner of the fourth annual Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia. The $1,000 prize, given by UBC Library and the Pacific BookWorld News Society, will be awarded at UBC’s Irving K. Barber Learning Centre in June.

The book, Resettling the Range: Animals, Ecologies, and Human Communities in British Columbia is a new study of the occupation of the Cariboo-Chilcotin region by ranchers and other settlers. Thistle’s book examines the ecological and historical impact of the settlement including eradicating grasshoppers and wild and feral horses from the grasslands.

“John’s book shines a light on an otherwise overlooked area of British Columbia’s history,” says Dr. Ingrid Parent, UBC’s University Librarian. “We are thrilled that this year’s Basil Stuart-Stubbs prize has been awarded to a book written by a UBC alumnus and published by UBC Press.”

Resettling the Range explores the profound consequences of eradication efforts in the BC interior in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries including the alteration of the ecological balance of the grasslands and the impact on the indigenous people in the area.

“I wanted to write a book about a landscape I loved. I also wanted to tell a story about the history of this place that was not limited to humanity alone, so a book that looked at the grasslands history from the vantage point of wild horses and grasshoppers was inherently attractive to me.” – John Thistle

Thistle is a PhD graduate from UBC’s department of geography and was most recently a Research Associate at Memorial University’s Labrador Institute where his work focused on the social, economic, and environmental legacies of large-scale resource extraction. Thistle’s teaching and research interests span environmental history, economic geography, and science and technology studies. Resettling the Range is his first published book.

The two other finalists are: Lisa Pasolli’s Working Mothers and the Child Care Dilemma: A History of British Columbia’s Social Policy (UBC Press) and Maria Tippett’s Made in British Columbia: Eight Ways of Making Culture (Harbour Publishing). For full citations, see the Shortlist 2016.

About the Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia

The Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia was established in memory of Basil Stuart-Stubbs, a bibliophile, scholar and librarian who passed away in 2012. Stuart-Stubbs was formerly University Librarian at UBC Library and Director of UBC’s School of Library, Archival and Information Studies. The award, generously supported by donors, pays homage to his leadership role in many national and regional library and publishing activities, particularly in the production and distribution of Canadian books and Canadian publishing.

Entries can be written or edited by any Canadian (s) and the subject matter must pertain to British Columbia. The author need not be formally affiliated with a university or college. An educational mandate or perspective will be sufficient to merit the term scholarly if the quality of the writing and research is sufficiently high. Books can be deemed eligible only once, on a calendar-year basis. A shortlist of three titles is selected prior to a presentation ceremony hosted at UBC Library during Spring 2014.

There is no entry fee.

Deadline for submissions is December 1, 2013.

To enter, publishers should send three copies of each eligible title to:

Journey with No Maps: A Life of P.K. Pageby Sandra Djwa (McGill-Queen’s University Press). This book explores the life of P.K. Page, an accomplished poet, painter, fiction writer, children’s author and essayist who spent much of her life in Victoria;

The recipient will be announced by April 2013. The inaugural prize, worth $1,000, will be awarded at a reception on May 7, 2013 at UBC’s Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

About the Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Book on British ColumbiaThe Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia was established in memory of Basil Stuart-Stubbs, a bibliophile, scholar and librarian who passed away in 2012. Stuart-Stubbs’s many accomplishments included serving as the University Librarian at UBC Library and as the Director of UBC’s School of Library, Archival and Information Studies. Stuart-Stubbs had a leadership role in many national and regional library and publishing activities. During his exceptional career, he took particular interest in the production and distribution of Canadian books, and was associated with several initiatives beneficial to authors and their readers, and to Canadian publishing.

University Librarian Ingrid Parent’s remarks about the challenges and opportunities facing UBC Library, and research libraries around the world, are highlighted in the Fall 2012 issue of the CPSLD Newsletter.

Other news includes the Library’s jump in ARL standings; a collaborative agreement between UBC Library and the Peking University Library; a tribute to Basil Stuart-Stubbs, UBC’s former University Librarian and Director of the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies; updates on cIRcle, UBC’s digital repository; and more.

The Library’s submission begins on page 24 of the newsletter, which is published on behalf of the Council of Post Secondary Library Directors, British Columbia.